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Operatie Spacefighter (Vandersteen comic)/plot
Biggles is with Colonel Raymond in Ireland observing the test flight of a new fighter, the F-42 Spacefighter. All goes well at first but then the prototype mysteriously crashes while attempting to land. Those in the control tower speculate that it might be something to do with a ghost aircraft which pilots had reported seeing. Biggles doesn't believe it but just then a Lockheed T-33 trainer on approach reports just such an encounter--a ghostly German Dornier bomber which suddenly appears and disappears in the clouds. Biggles is sceptical about the idea of a ghost aircraft but decides to fly patrols over the same airspace to investigate. One night, while on one such patrol with Raymond, they really do see a Dornier behind them. Biggles turns towards the Dornier and it disappears! But Biggles had noticed something else: a bright blue light on the ground. Biggles and Raymond drive to the location of the blue light and discover that it is a searchlight which an inventor named O'Connor had been adapting as a 3D movie projector. And he had been testing it by projecting an old wartime documentary into the clouds. The test flights of the Spacefighter continue and the next flight also crashes, but this time the pilot, Len Curtis, manages to parachute to safety while the aircraft crashes into the sea. In hospital, Curtis tells Biggles and Raymond that he thought his ailerons had jammed and had ejected as a reflex action even before he made a distress call. Curtis is discharged from the hospital a few days later. Waiting for him outside in a car, his fiancee Phillys is surprised to see two men come up and accost Curtis and even start to attack him. She rushes over and the men run off. Back at her home, Curtis, looking worried, insists it was nothing, just random street thugs, but Phillys is not so sure and calls Raymond. The next day, Curtis reports to Raymond and continues to be nonchalant about the attack but while he engaged with the interview, Biggles stealthily plants a tracker inside his cap. Biggles and Phillys are right to be suspicious. While going home, Curtis is again accosted by two men who drag him into a car. They bring him to a gambling den where Stanley, the owner demands that Curtis settle his gambling debts. Curtis asks for a bit more time but Stanley has had enough and asks his men to give him a beating. Just then, the receptionist brings in a letter for Curtis: it's an anonymous note, giving him a sum of money and asking him to mislead the authorities about the location of the Spacefighter wreck in the sea. Curtis uses the money to buy his way out of trouble but then gets aggressive to the two men who had hit him. Stanley draws a gun and orders hi men to take Curtis away. Biggles has followed the tracker and is waiting outside. He follows Stanley's men to an abandoned industrial area where he finds Curtis's unconscious body. Curtis is brought to hospital where he wakes up and agrees to tell Biggles everything, including the true location of the wreck. Biggles plays along. He is dropped by helicopter on a rock near the location of the wreck while the boat of the crash investigators drop anchor elsewhere and appear to search the wrong place. Biggles' patience is rewarded as another boat soon arrives and a diver is sent down to explore the wreck. Biggles follows him down in scuba gear. The mystery diver appears to be searching the wreck of the Spacefighter for something but before Biggles can find out more, he is spotted by the other man and attacked with a spear gun. The harpoon misses Biggles but pins him to the wreckage. By the time Biggles works himself free, the other diver has surfaced and his boat is speeding away. Biggles signals for pickup and then pursues the boat in a helicopter. However, the thugs in the boat open fire. Biggles is forced to head for land but only after making a call asking for a cordon around that area of the coast. The boat escapes but a burnt out car is found in the marshes nearby. The car is a mystery as all serial numbers and identification marks appear to have been carefully removed. But Biggles does find one clue: a piece of rubber tire which has survived the flames. He asks the lab to examine it. Meanwhile the test flights of the Spacefighter resume, this time with Ginger as the test pilot. The first flight goes smoothly without mishap but the aircraft veers off the runway during the landing run. Ginger thinks the ailerons may have jammed. Sir Foster Dungham, the manufacturer of the ailerons, doesn't agree and invites the authorities to visit his factory for an inspection. Just then the lab calls Biggles: there are traces of limestone in the tyre. A strange coincidence, Biggles thinks, as Foster's factory is near a limestone quarry. The inspection at Foster's factory convinces most of the authorities that there is nothing wrong with the manufature of the ailerons. But during a reception at Foster's house, Biggles notices Helen, Foster's wife, looking very disturbed when receiving a call. He follows her upstairs to her room where she continues her conversation. but catches a snippet of her agreeing to meet someone that evening. The reception breaks up but Biggles hangs about outside Foster's residence. As suspected, Helen drives out alone that evening. Biggles follows her to the factory where she is seen entering the works building through a rear entrance. Helen meets a man named Kovan. He wants her to report everything she hears but she demands an explanation for this. Then Kovan gets a call and he suddenly wants Helen to leave. Biggles, of course, has not been able to hear what went on and he gets ready to follow Helen but before he can move, he is captured by Jenkins, Kovan's accomplice. Jenkins has been keeping watch outside and had spotted Biggles. It was he who called to warn Kovan. Biggles escapes into the aircraft works but is recaptured and tied up. Back at the airbase, the flight tests of the Spacefighter have to resume, even though Biggles has failed to turn up. Ginger takes the aircraft up and again, the flight passes without incident until the return leg when it suddenly plunges downwards, forcing Ginger to eject. He tells Raymond it is the aileron again. Puzzled, Raymond calls on Dungham. The aileron manufacturer insists the sabotage must have taken place after the components left his premises and hands Raymond a list of his employees, all of them above suspicion, he says. Helen overhears this and urgently goes to warn Kovan about this. Kovan is not worried as he is pulling out. Helen doesn't understand so Kovan explains. For the benefit of the reader, it is now revealed that Kovan is Helen's brother. He had been convicted in the past for political activities and had left the country. He had then returned and Helen had used her influence to help him get a job at her husband's aircraft works but under a false name. Now Kovan tells Helen that he is working for a foreign intelligence agency and his mission is to undermine the development and sales of the Spacefighter by sabotaging the test flights. Helen is upset and wants to call her husband but Kovan pulls a gun on her, takes her hostage and drives off. Jenkins prepares to pull out also and wants to dispose of Biggles. Biggles is all tied up but it is now or never. He lunges at Jenkins and manages to wrap his legs in a stranglehold around Jenkin's neck. Jenkins is forced to untie him. The roles are reversed. Biggles ties Jenkins up and drives off in pursuit. Kovan sees Biggles following and lays an ambush for him round a bend. Biggles comes under a hail of submachine gun fire and loses control of the steering. The car veers off the road and plunges into the sea. At the last minute, Biggles frees himself from the vehicle, swims to the surface and then collapses on the shore. Fortunately, he is found by a farmer who calls the police at Biggles' urging. Kovan has taken Helen to an abandoned bunker on the coast. He is joined by two other accomplices and they call for a submarine to take them away, holding Helen as a hostage in the meantime. Raymond and Biggles arrive with the police and surround the place. The submarine surfaces but spots the policemen and, sensing trouble, quickly dives again. Knowing their escape has been cut off, Kovan's two accomplices attempt to fight their way out but are captured. Kovan refuses to give in and threatens to harm Helen unless the police give him a getaway car. Biggles takes aim with a sniper rifle but can't get a clear shot. It looks like Kovan is going to get away but then he collapses. Sir Foster Dungham has turned up behind and has shot him in the back! Helen is safe and Kovan's two accomplices confess. They had mixed a susbtance in the alloy used for the ailerons mechanism. This caused the metal to soften when heated during flight. The component would thus fail randomly while the aircraft was flying. After flight, the component would cool and the metal would return to its original state, making it hard for the tampering to be discovered. With the mystery solved, the test flights of the Spacefighter resume. Category:Plot summaries (derivative works)